I wrote a post on the Alliance blog, For the Good of the Game, which got a response from one of the guys from NC Dot that we fought a few nights ago. His full comment can be found there, but my response is here, in full.

Tung Wrote:In my opinion ‘null sec survival’ agregates lots of different situations, and by sitting all day in the same system, with scouts in adjacent systems, you’re reducing ‘teaching null sec pvp’ to ‘teaching how to survive in 8G- with scouts and ECM backup’.

I really like the fact that people use their own gaming time to help other players, and in this way your initiative is great, props. However I’d also like to point out that by concentrating on just a very narrow part of eve 0.0 pvp gameplay, you’re not doing your e-pupils a service, because once they leave your course they’ll know only a tidbit of the game, a risk-averse static gameplay that might make them good bubble campers, but that is pretty much all.

Bren Wrote:Somewhere between what you observe and what you think is the truth. The students that we are teaching how to survive in null sec, they have to actually get to the camp in 8G, past the hordes of Red Alliance and NC Dot, INIT, -A- gangs and more who are not interested in fair fights, or 1v1s. To graduate, they have to roam solo in a frigate in Curse, one of the most dangerous regions in New Eden, taking snapshots along the way, using the techniques that we teach them.

You were in 8G with us when Why So Serious hot dropped us. We got away because we are used to it. Would you use a Titan to drop a BC/HAC gang on a frig cruiser gang of newbies trying to learn how to fleet up for PvP? Probably not, but NC Dot has hot dropped us.

What would a student learn if we stood our ground and fought them? How to die with honor? That big fleets eat little fleets? When you have 1 million SP, what do you learn from having a 1v1 with a guy that has 20 million SP? That you don’t have the skills to beat a a guy with 20 times the SP you have?

We take brand new players, one day old, and teach them how to travel in null. We sit them on a bubble camp and prove to the students that their training works: Our students will not land in a drag bubble after seeing the consequences of it. When they graduate, they are free to move on to do whatever their hearts desire to do in Eve. We don’t keep anyone in OUCH longer than 90 days, unless they ask to stay, and volunteer to teach.

We know that what we do is only a tidbit of the game. We generally do not take students out on roams. Our instructors roam with other corps, we explore wormholes, do null sec PvE, travel the dangerous Curse Pipe. We use our skills for something other than bubble camping. But what we do in our Camp Curse is calculated killing, choosing our own fights, giving nothing away. We’re giving new pilots an opportunity to get used to following the primary, tackling their targets, using proper coordination and communication, and not regularly get blown out of their ships doing it. They still lose ships, don’t get me wrong, but we minimize their losses and maximize the kills.

Why? Because we’re sharing an Eve experience with them. We’re out to steal your happiness and give it to our newbies. It’s fun.

In all seriousness, what we do is encourage people to try out PvP. You should thank us, because eventually they end up either in your alliance, helping you out, or in someone else’s alliances, and you get to shoot them.

Otherwise, most of them would stay in High Sec and care bear away.

Fly Safe or Fly Dangerous, Just Don't Fly Stupid.Eve Killboard - East US TZIn the business of maintaining the high cost of implants since 2009.